January 2018 Jobs Report

Unemployment Rate: 4.1 percent

Jobs Created: 200,000

Employment and Unemployment

The Department of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 4.1percent for January, unchanged from last month.

Today’s jobs report shows an increase of 200,000 nonfarm jobs in January. Employment for November was revised down from 252,000 to 216,000, and December was revised up from 148,000 jobs to 160,000 jobs.

The U.S. has created 2,725,000 new jobs since President Trump was elected in November 2016.

Unemployment in January among those ages 16-19 was 13.9 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from last month. For people of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, the unemployment rate was 5.0 percent, up from 4.9 percent in December. For African-Americans, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent, up from 6.8 percent in December.

The number of long-term unemployed, those unemployed for 27 weeks or more, was 1.4 million, down from 1.5 million in December. They account for 21.5 percent of the unemployed, down from 22.9 percent in the prior month.

The “real” unemployment or U-6 rate is 8.2 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from last month. The U-6 figure represents the total percentage of unemployed and underemployed workers.

By this measure, the “real” number of unemployed Americans is 13.3 million. These are people who are unemployed (6.7 million), want work but have stopped searching for a job (1.7 million), or are working part time because they cannot find full-time employment (5.0 million).

In January, employment grew by 23,000 in professional and business services; 15,000 in manufacturing; 21,000 in health care; and 36,000 in construction. Since November 2016, manufacturing has added 216,000 new jobs. Government gained 4,000 jobs last month. Last month, employment in clothing and clothing accessory stores increased by 15,100 and in food services by 32,500.

Labor Force Participation

Since October 2013, the participation rate has largely been stuck in a narrow range of 62.5 to 63 percent. Prior to the recession, the rate was 66 percent.

The share of American adults with jobs in January was 60.1 percent, unchanged from last month. This is nearly 4 percentage points below its pre-recession peak.

Wages

In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 9 cents to $26.74 following an 11 cent increase in December. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.9 percent, the highest gain in eight years.